Japanese filmmaker Kôji Shiraishi knows his way around a haunt, having established a reputation for scare crafting with documentary-style horror movies Noroi: The Curse, Occult, and A Record of Sweet Murder. The director occasionally showcased his sense of humor, dialing up the camp factor in commercial films like Sadako vs. Kayako. Kôji Shiraishi’s latest, House of Sayuri, splits the difference between serious scares and irreverent horror-comedy. A vengeful ghost doles out shocking violence in this haunted house, with a comically combative grandma standing in its way, making for a tonally disjointed effort as bizarre as that setup suggests.

After a cold open that establishes the haunting’s inciting event, House of Sayuri cuts to the present to introduce the Kamiki family, a tight-knit and cheerful group of seven who’ve just moved into the home, blissfully unaware of its history. The new home comes after years of blood, sweat,...

Last month, it was announced that Hi Score Girl creator Rensuke Oshikiri's horror manga Sayuri would be getting a live-action film adaptation. Today, we get a proper first look at the upcoming film: a main cast list, as well as the first teaser and a new poster. The poster gives us a chilling, shadowy view of the story's vengeful spirit: Related: Rensuke Oshikiri's Horror Manga Sayuri to Get Live-Action Film Adaptation This Summer Ryoka Minamide was previously announced to be starring as Norio Kamiki, the story's main character. Joining him to fill out the family are Zen Kajihara, Fusako Urabe, Kokoro Morita, Ray Inomata, Kitaro and Toshie Negishi. Hana Kondo will appear as Norio's classmate. Check out the cast in the film's latest teaser: Sayuri is being directed by Koji Shiraishi, the director of the 2016 film Sadako vs. Kayako . The story follows the strange phenomena haunting a family...

Call Me Chihiro is a movie directed by Rikiya Imaizumi starring Kasumi Arimura. With Lily Franky and Jun Fubuki. It is based on a manga by Hiroyuki Yasuda.

This movie seeks enchanting the viewer with the always charming presence of Kasumi Arimura in a movie created for her in which she manages to bring that “special touch” of special manga by Hiroyuki Yasuda.

Movie Review Call Me Chihiro (2023)

This movie is all about taking its time in order to describe the characters and the situations, the inner world and, above all, that poetic world that extends itself beyond the narrative, which is apparently simple and even uncomplicated if considered from a classic way, but is essentially paused and reflective, a very beautiful movie.

Call Me Chihiro is, above all a movie in which the lead character knows how to seduce the viewer and displays herself exactly as she is: this...

Based on the homonymous novel by Shusaku Endo, which tells the story of downed American pilots in World War II who were vivisected by Japanese surgeons in medical experiments, “Sea and Poison” was a great success, winning the Silver Berlin Bear in Berlinale, Best Film and Director from Kinema Junpo and Mainichi, and Best Director from Blue Ribbon, and also an award for editing for Osamu Inoue from the Japanese Academy.

The film begins with an interrogation conducted in a cell by the American MP, headed by a Japanese officer who is quite harsh on the people he asks questions: two former interns, Suguro and Toda, and a nurse, Ueda. Through flashbacks deriving from their confessions, a rather harrowing tale is presented on screen. This story is split in two parts, with the bombings in Kyushu island, where the hospital of the story is based and the subsequent capturing of American pilots,...

The producers of the TV series “Masters of Horror,” an anthology shot by various directors, chose Miike to direct an episode. However, given the artistic freedom they allowed him, the result was a given. “Imprint” was violent enough for the people at Showtime to refuse to broadcast it. Let us see what caused this reaction.

In 19th century Japan, Christopher, an American journalist searches for his lost love, a woman he abandoned despite his promises. His investigation leads him to a secluded island, where a prostitute informs him that his loved one is deceased. Subsequently, she begins describing the life of the girl, a dramatic story of torture and hidden secrets.

Miike presents a grotesque edition of Japanese folklore and a love story that transforms into something irrational and evil. From the beginning, with the pregnant corpse hanging above a river, to the whore house with the...

Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura, Renji Ishibashi, Miyuki Matsuda, Toshie Negishi, Ren Ôsugi, Shigeru Saiki, Ken Mitsuishi, Yuriko Hiro’oka | Written by Daisuke Tengan | Directed by Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike’s Audition will always be a special movie to me, because it sparked off my obsession with Takashi Miike. It also put me off the meal I was eating when I first watched it, so it impressed me too. The fact that Arrow Video have given it a special edition should be enough to make it a must buy, but do they do the film justice with their release?

Audition (Ôdishon) is the story of Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) a widower who “auditions” prospective women to date under the rues of a film role. When Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) is interviewed she catches his eye, and he takes her on a first date. Little does he...

Enchanting, startling; a rare story about a girl at a precarious age. Full of that exquisite Studio Ghibli sorcery that captures the beauty of the ordinary. I’m “biast” (pro): love Studio Ghibli’s films

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

It’s another enchanting animated film from Studio Ghibli, but this one is really special. Less overtly fantastical than some of Ghibli’s other projects — though it’s still primarily a ghost story — When Marnie Was There is grounded in an adolescent reality that we almost never see onscreen: that girls have a rough time, too, in the transition from childhood to adulthood, and in finding a path through conflicting and confusing emotions to our own true identities.

The details of her pain are doled out slowly, over the course of her story,...

If Takashi Miike's zany "Yakuza Apocalypse" is still rattling around in your brain and you have an itch for more from the Japanese master, the good news is that another film is just around the corner. Having completed a lengthy run on the festival circuit, the director's "Over Your Dead Body" is gearing up to hit home video and VOD, and a full length trailer is here as a treat for Halloween. Read More: Fantasia Review: Takashi Miike's Enjoyably Wacky 'The Mole Song - Undercover Agent Keiji'  Ebizo Ichikawa, Ko Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito, Miho Nakanishi, Maiko, Toshie Negishi, Hiroshi Katsuno and Ikko Furuya star in a movie where a kabuki theater sets the stage for a 200 year-old terror. Here's the official synopsis:  A beautiful actress (Kô Shibasaki of 47 Ronin and Battle Royale) plays the protagonist in a new play based on a legendary ghost story. She pulls some...

Stars: Ko Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito, Hitomi Katayama, Ebizo Ichikawa, Maiko, Toshie Negishi, Miho Nakanishi, Hiroshi Katsuno, Ikko Furuya | Written by Kikumi Yamagishi | Directed by Takashi Miike

Time to fess up: I don’t know all that much about Japanese folklore. Knowing the source material for an artwork that leans heavily on popular cultural institutions isn’t a requirement when viewing said art, mind. I was hardly aware of the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter before seeing The Tale of the Princess Kaguya earlier this year but still managed to be transfixed by the beauty and sweet melancholy of that particular story all the same – though I am sure extra nuggets of meaning could be sifted from that film were I to read up on its origins.

Unfortunately for Over Your Dead Body, the latest in a long line of brutal but thematically complex psychological horrors from controversial auteur Takashi Miike,...

Prolific director Takashi Miike has helmed an abundance of eclectic big screen stories over the years, memorably taking viewers on graphic killing quests in Ichi the Killer and 13 Assassins. Miike also made an indelible mark on the horror genre with 1999’s Audition, and he looks to scare audiences again with his new film, Over Your Dead Body, recently acquired by Shout! Factory for a 2015 release.

Earlier today it was revealed that Shout! Factory! acquired the North American rights to Miike’s new horror film, which made its international premiere at Tiff in September. Shout! Factory plans to release Over Your Dead Body on home media through its Scream Factory label sometime next year.

Synopsis via Tiff: “A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play,...

Earlier this week, it was announced that the last full-length work of Akutagawa Prize-winning author Kenji Nakagami, Keibetsu (literally “scorn”), is being turned into a film starring Kengo Kora and Anne Suzuki. Ryuichi Hiroki (April Bride, The Lightning Tree) will direct.

Kora plays Kazu, the only son of a prominent family. In spite of his distinguished upbringing, he spends most of his time gambling all his money away in Tokyo. In a fairly drastic shift from her usually image, Suzuki plays Machiko, the number one pole dancer at a club in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. The two start a fling based on mutual attraction and attempt to begin a life together in Kazu’s home town. However, his family is unwilling to recognize the relationship.

Machiko soon returns to Tokyo and Kazu comes to the realization that he has no way to pay off the massive debt he’s racked up with...